Travel Planning: Namibia

I’ve started putting some thought into my next adventure and Namibia will definitely play a part. A desert full of dead trees that can’t decay due to the total lack of moisture, sand-dune boarding, a hot air balloon ride across the shifting sands, the morning mist rolling onto the shore where the desert meets the Atlantic and desert wildlife including elephants, lions, and ostriches.

Yup, I’ll have some of that, please.

How can we afford this, you may ask? I’m still working on that. One thing’s for sure, I can’t pay for one of the packaged multi-day tours that cost a fortune. Instead, we’ll be hopping on buses to find our way around the country. I think our two bases will be the capital Windhoek (a hub for buses into and out of Namibia as well as around the country) and Swakopmund (the Namibian holiday town and activity center on the coast).

Whatever happens, it’ll be an adventure.

Today’s Photo: The last of the boathouse

This is the last of my shots of the peaceful marina on Lake Ontario in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The sunset lingered for a long time and after rushing around trying to find a nice view that didn’t involve scaling a fence I decided on this one. Unfortunately, there was still a fence in the way. I tried every single gate to see if one was unlocked but didn’t have any luck. Eventually, I hoisted my camera, tripod and all, above my head and wedged it into the chain links of the fence. I let it stop shaking about and used my cable release to fire off 3 bracketed images.

A beautiful, sunset in a quaint Canadian town, provided the perfect backdrop for this calm scene on the shores of Lake Ontario. This was taken just as winter was turning to Spring. It was an early Spring, hence the boats are on the dock rather than in the water chomping at the bit. The serene surface of the lake provided a perfect mirror to help show off the sky.

Only a chain-linked fence threatened to ruin the shot. In a panic, as the light looked ready to fade, I figure out how to use the fence in concert with my tripod to get the shot. You can read more about how I did that here.

This is the last of my photos from Prague, for now, anyway. It’s a great city and I’ll certainly be heading back at some point. This is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Prague, Charles Bridge. It’s pretty difficult to get a shot with no tourists crossing the bridge. I’ve talked about other methods I’ve used involving combining multiple images to mask out any people or just getting there really early. With this shot, it all came down to patience. I set up and waited until there was no one in the way.

Today’s Photo: Hello Stranger

Another of Bergdorf-Goodman’s amazing window displays just before Christmas. I find the way that I got the mannequin to look into the camera in this photo a little unsettling. There’s an odd life-like quality coming from it. It feels like she could step through the glass out into the street. I wish I’d taken photos of more of the windows there. Unfortunately, this and the parrot are the only two that I took. By this point I was absolutely freezing (it was 5 in the morning) and my hands in particular couldn’t take it any longer. I had a long, LONG walk back to the hotel. I did stop off and pick up a delicious egg and sausage bagel from one of the street carts though. That made it all better.

Something Interesting: Back to the Future

This is a really cool idea for a photo project. Irina Werning got people to dig out old photographs of themselves and then recreated them with the people replicating the poses,dress and activities even though they’re now considerably older: BACK TO THE FUTURE: IRINA WERNING

Iceland Preparations

This time next week, I’ll be arriving in Iceland, quickly dropping my suitcase at the hotel and dashing out to photograph a lighthouse under the midnight sun. So, I’m getting prepared. I’m not checking my bookings or thinking what to pack like a normal person would be. Instead, I’m spending my weekend frantically trying to get photos processed and blog entries written in advance as I’ve reached the conclusion that, although I’ll have access to the internet at the majority of my accommodations, I won’t have the energy to process a photo and write something every day. On top of this I resolved to stop offering up one line posts, which would be inevitable if I tried to maintain them in Iceland. My time will be pretty well allocated with running around taking photos, driving from place to place, and other distractions. The plus side of this push, though, is that I’ve realised something. I actually really enjoy setting aside whole days and nights (admittedly more night than day) to working up photos. I get into a real groove processing photos one after the other and they seem to take less time to complete than if I worked on them individually. I think going forward I’ll be focusing on having photos ready to pick from for the daily post and just keep replenishing that selection. It should also up the quality of photo I produce as I’ll be working on them when I’ve made time for them, rather than rushing to get one done before going to the pub.

Today’s Photo: The Dawn of Spring

Today’s photo is a simple one, taking advantage of the patterns produced by a longish exposure and flowing water. When I first got into photography, I used to take my rebel down to the beach in Bermuda and spend my whole time playing with shutter speeds to smooth out the water. So, whenever I spot fast flowing water I have to stop and grab a photo.

This was taken in Bruce County in Ontario. It was March and it was hot. I had expected I’d be figuring out how to take photos of still frozen waterfalls, instead everything had thawed and Spring was coming early. I paused here on my way to Indian Falls to grab this shot.

The drive from Toronto to Niagara is pretty interesting. You exit the city and gradually surround yourself by countryside. The Niagara is full of vineyards. I only wish I’d been there while the vines were growing!

I took this on my last night in Prague. I went out for what I thought was a couple of hours, it turned out I was out for 5 hours just wandering and taking photos. I discovered this viewpoint in a park by the river up from Charles Bridge. This photo is most interesting viewed at full size where you can scroll around the details of the skyline. On the right you see St. Vitus Cathedral jutting above the Prague Castle. Moving to the left the dome of the Church of St. Nicholas is visible with the gateway to Charles Bridge leading into the bridge itself to the left. Up on the hill opposite the castle can see an Eiffel Tower like structure. You could probably take photos all night long in Prague on an overcast night as the lights from the city give the clouds a yellow glow.

If you’re interested in licensing any of the photos featured here, or if you just want to say hi, please e-mail johnnyp@traverseearth.com.

If you’d like to purchase a print you can do so by clicking on any picture’s you like on the blog. Also, you can click the “Buy Prints” link at the top of the page to go browse my photos by continent and country.

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